X-Planes....

In case you aren't familiar with the term, and X-Plane is an experimental aircraft used to test new technologies. More often than not, they look weird and do weird things, like sweep their wings back (or forward), land facing straight up, shoot lasers, etc. In case you're curious, there's a whole tumblr page devoted to them here.


I love converting models, most often to make things that don't exist or should. So, whenever you see the X-Plane header in this space, it's probably because I've made something odd, such as this Space Marine Bike: 

Now of course there are no rules in 40k for Techmarines on enormous trikes, so this one functions as an attack bike in my Marine army. Something that I find happens quite often when I'm converting models is that, after a point, the model seems to build itself. for this one, I had a rather nice jetbike chassis from some obscure range, and a pair of leftover imitation-SM Bike forks (metal ones, of all things) from a manufacturer that was sued out of existence by GW ages ago. I used the bike bodies for a project you'll see later. Anyway, the more I rifled through my bits containers for things, the more this odd bird seemed to take shape, until I added the Techmarine with his multi-melta backpack as an afterthought at the end. The rear tire is, in fact a pair of 1/35 scale jeep tires, mounted using Ork bike weapon mounts:

 I've been converting things like this since the old days of Battletech, when you could field just about any 'mech of your own design, whether or not you could modify a model appropriately (which I frequently did). The Techmarine rider is, as you may have guessed, not even originally a marine model (well, parts of him). The head is from a Sentinel pilot, the torso, shoulder armor, and arms are from a Marine tanker gunner (all of my tanks are "buttoned up", so I have gunner/commander parts I never use) and the legs are from an old metal cavalryman I had (for some reason), bulked up with green stuff into Space Marine legs. His servo arm is the leg of an old Battletech Locust. The whole model is rather heavy (being 90% metal) and has a very Batman-esque look to it, probably thanks to the B-52 intake between the "forelegs":

Those are mounted by way of legs from an older large-scale Heavy Gear model, of which I bought quite a few out of love for their Votoms-based designs. Many of these became fodder for other models, unfortunately (partly due to the utter lack of interest in playing the Heavy Gear RPG/wargame in this part of the country). I've committed more heinous crimes against old minis, such as the utter destruction of "classic" 40k Dreadnought models (let's be honest: the designs were rubbish)  and the use of a Castellan robot's body as the fuselage of a bomber. I wish I had kept those things somewhat intact now (even just to sell intact on eBay). Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. 

As a last note, I understand that people will want in-progress pics so they can see what's running through my mind as I make these things (not to mention make some of their own)  however many of the models you'll be seeing here have been built way before I even thought of blogging, much less documenting the creative process. The next project I start (which, at this stage looks like Necron Tyranid models; more on that later) I shall endeavor to document, but for you kind readers (thank you for your comments about the Warhound!) the next few blogs will be things which have been built and, as such, are photo-ready. This includes the strange armies I have built for Warhammer Fantasy.